Desperate Read Online Free PDF Page A

She was almost eighteen, and he’d yet to show up.
    “Thank you, Ruby.” He took the tin of cookies and put them in his saddlebags. Once they were stored inside, he glanced down at her. “See you around, kid.”
    “Bye,” she said, her voice a sweet sugary sound that made Annabelle want to gag.
    She wanted to grab her younger sister and tell her not to be so flirtatious, so obvious. Annabelle was the middle one, the one most forgotten, and she wanted a man in her life just like the others.
    Well, maybe Meg didn’t want to marry. She never really said what she wanted in life.
    Ruby turned around and strolled back to her sisters, a big smile on her young face. She glanced at them. “What? You’re both staring at me like I was doing something wrong.”
    Meg shook her head at Ruby.
    Annabelle turned toward the door. “He’s too old for you.”
    “I’m fifteen.”
    “I’m seventeen,” Annabelle said, walking back into the house. “I’m closer to his age.”
    “I saw him first,” Ruby stated, hurrying up to Annabelle. “If anyone in this family is taking him, it’s me!”
    “And what would you do with him once you had him? Charge him a dime to kiss you?” Annabelle taunted, not sure why she felt the need to aggravate Ruby, but still feeling this urge to make her sister suffer. Ruby had no qualms about flirting outrageously with every man she met, and Annabelle wished she could be so blatant. Wished her one true love would come and rescue her.
    “Enough,” Meg suddenly commanded, clearly irritated with both of them. “Our father is lying in there gravely ill and you two are arguing over a man. Stop it this moment. We have to help Papa, not think about our own wants and needs.”
    Guilt seized Annabelle by the throat. Meg was right. Had being cooped up with her sisters warped her mind? Their papa lay in the next room ill, and she’d been dreaming of her forever-after, instead of thinking about how to take care of their father.
    Meg gazed at them, her green eyes flashing with outrage, a look that Annabelle recognized from past experiences never meant well. “I’m going to go sit with Papa this morning, and then after lunch, Ruby you’ll take over. Annabelle, you wash the dishes with Ruby. Plus, there are the animals to see to.”
    Things seemed so unsettled. When her father’s broken body had come into the house, the air of change had swept through, tossing all of them about, leaving their futures unsettled.
    Annabelle turned and made a face at Ruby, who rolled her eyes back at her. Annabelle started clearing the dishes off the table and putting them in the washtub. Most of the time, Annabelle kept Meg and Ruby from fighting, but today, Annabelle didn’t want to get along with Ruby. Today, she ached with the need to put her younger sister in her place. To remind her that she had no business chasing after a man that much older than her.
    Yes, their father lay in the next room, broken, battered, and she prayed unceasingly for his quick recovery. She wanted him to find her a husband, to walk her down the aisle. She needed her sisters by her side, but most of all, she longed for her papa to heal all the uncertainty.
    “He’s mine,” Ruby whispered.
    Annabelle cringed inside, knowing she should not respond, but unable to stop herself—not even really wanting this man, but somehow not wanting her sister to have him. Ruby was too young.
    “I don’t see a ring on his finger, so he belongs to no woman yet,” Annabelle responded, her voice still its nice gentle tone with a current of steel running through it.
    Ruby glanced at her. “Afraid of being an old maid like Miss Anderson?”
    “No fears whatsoever, child .” She reminded her sister, knowing Ruby thought she was a full-grown woman.
    “I’m not a child.”
    “Just because you’ve grown breasts in the last six months, doesn’t make you a woman,” Annabelle whispered as she sank the dishes into the tub of soapy warm water.
    “Not yet